Registry

Registry

In March of 2015, the AAO-HNS Board approved the registry initiative. What does this mean? It means that the Academy will be investing in your future, a future that will increasingly involve payment based on quality of care and performance measurement. We are now in the planning phases of registry development researching member needs, understanding the quality reporting landscape, identifying pain points within membership where data could prove helpful, and charting the course towards alignment of quality reporting under the SGR Repeal legislation.

At its core a registry is a set of data elements and data or a database. Registries can serve a number of purposes. The purpose in turn defines the type of registry that gets built, the infrastructure needed for support, and the development cost involved. The purpose should align to core member needs. Registries are built to track new treatments, monitor disease states over time, track population health, patient outcomes, track patients through the care system, conduct clinical trials, and do research on new therapies. Some registries are used solely for aftermarket research. Others are used solely for quality improvement and quality reporting. Others support decision making at the point of care. The most important step in building a registry is identifying its purpose such that it aligns with member needs and expectations. A very popular form of registry has emerged with the advent of quality reporting for Medicare quality programs and that is a QCDR or Qualified Clinical Data Registry. These registries are used to report within the Physician Quality Reporting System, or PQRS and are built to help members report on approved measures for CMS quality reporting. Over time these registries may grow and add new performance measures, but their core deliverable is quality reporting. A good number of societies have developed their QCDRs jointly with their Boards as collaborators and partners so that physicians may one-stop shop for quality reporting, Maintenance of Certification Part IV points, and quality improvement. QCDRs house performance measures approved by CMS for PQRS reporting. Until 2019 and for a good period of time thereafter, QCDRs will have a role to play both for PQRS until it is phased out and then in the new Merit Based Incentive Program as it launches. However, the environment bears watching as physicians who join alternative payment programs will be exempt from quality reporting in 2019.

Key Decisions Made:

The following key decisions have already been made with more expected over the summer months.

Board approved the registry initiative in March, 2015

The registry will be module-based starting with one disease condition or procedure

Centralized patient data

Longitudinal

Part of physician workflow

Data extraction via EHR is preferred method of gathering data

Use a phased approach to development

Resources:

Check out these videos to learn more about quality registries in use at other specialty societies.Video –